Entering Contests!

Poem Girl is having an awesome contest here. You should go enter. Here is I, Layla's entry:

Anna under the Stars

I remember one cold winter night. The fire danced merrily forming into many different shapes and I was laying peacefully in the crook of my father’s arm, looking up into his bearded face, his blue eyes twinkling like stars. His eyes always reminded me of stars, even now though I was only six years old. I was a very alert child and noticed many things like that.   We were in an over-sized white chair nearly being suffocated by a variety of blankets and pillows which covered our feet and nestled against our cheeks. There were to steaming mugs of hot cocoa resting on a desk nearby, marshmallows floating on top and melting into numerous different shapes. A bible rested on my father’s knees halfway covered by the blankets.  I was mesmerized as he read the words that were lined up in columns on the fragile pages and I listened intently and took in all that he said.

“Remember Anna, God is always with you and always will be. Do not be afraid.” Then he kissed me lightly on the forehead and we both went to bed, forgetting our hot cocoa with the steam still rising up from it. I wish everything could still be that way, just how it used to be when I was the tiniest wee bit of a child, safe in her home with her father, mother and God. I wish I never had to experience what happened two years from that very day.

                                                                                            ~

“We must go Anna. Everything will be alright. Just remember to pray and we will be back before you count to three.” I looked straight into his eyes and saw him and my mother walk off with my baby brother in their arms. I closed the door and collapsed on the floor crying and Granny had to work very hard to stop the tears from flowing from my eyes. After probably an hour I felt myself getting extremely drowsy as I struggled to keep my eyes open. I took one last look across the room- Granny rocking back and forth as the chair which she was sitting in let forth horribly high-pitched screeching sounds- the fire crackling in the fire place, almost looking as though it was about to come out- the snowflakes falling slowly like silk outside of the foggy window- the bible open on a cherry colored desk…

                                                                                          ~

I woke up and immediately felt like I was in a furnace. There was a strong smell of smoke in the room too. I brushed my short and straight brown hair out of my eyes, rubbed them rapidly and looked around me. I was in a furnace. I was a timid child and always had been and seeing the house on fire around me and granny nowhere to be seen I was at a loss as to what to do. My muddled emotions overcame me and I began sobbing wildly and running out of the house into the freezing snow. I was blinded by my tears as I ran forward, swaying as though I was drunk, and my heart beating so loudly I was sure people could have heard it for miles around. We lived quite far out in the country with no neighbors anywhere near and I knew that unless Granny really was alive and could call somebody no one would notice our house was on fire for a long while. The snow was coming down very thickly and occasionally a fierce gust of wind came and nearly blew me over. Once I did fall over- my foot catching on a thick tree root that was poking slightly out of the ground. I fell on my face and felt my mouth fill up with snow which I wouldn’t have minded if I had been expecting it. Instead I must have looked like a raging bull, running around madly, trying to get it all out. However I finally saw that I was nearing the end of the yard so I dragged my tired feet, making clear impressions in the snow though they were quickly covered up by each fresh torrent of snow flooding down from the sky. Just when I believed I was ready to merely fall over with exhaustion and die- well scratch that out- when I did fall over it was against an old rotting oak tree that stood right at the end of our property. When I felt that thud on my head, realizing where I was I was able to use just enough strength to right myself once more and grab one branch shooting out from the main trunk and pull myself up into it. I was in quite an uncomfortable condition as the tree was arched on one end sloped on one and full of jagged out-shoots on the two others putting me in exceedingly uncomfortable predicament. But despite how uncomfortable, wearied and sorrowful a situation I was in I still found it inside me to pray. My legs wrapped tight and twisting around the tree trunk I closed my eyes and began to pray. And to slowly fall back asleep…

                                                                                      ~

When I woke up the snow wasn’t coming down as hard as it had been last night. There were a few bits and pieces of half-burnt chairs laying out in the yard and I knew someone had come at some point in the night. Either everything valuable had been burnt or taken somewhere else for my eyes did not catch on anything that my parents or any others would consider to be worth saving. I sighed, propping myself up on one hand.  God suddenly began telling me something. My parents had already left.

                                                                                           ~

It came upon me abruptly, making my head swirl in every which way. And I ran. I opened the small latch on the metal gate, closing it behind me as the sound of metal banging against metal resounded around the whole yard. You would guess that I would be crying after finding out that I was thought dead and was left behind but I was not. I was too worried to cry, too filled with so many mixes of feelings that not even the tiniest tear could drop down from my eye. So I just walked down the road with snow that looked like icing on a beautiful big cake, my feet making traces along the delicious thing, showing that I had been hear. The white snow peppered my dark brown hair, and making traces on the blue of my sweater. My cheeks and nose were a dark red from the ice cold weather that I was in, not even dressed properly, but I continued on aimlessly, with no destination except for home, the home that didn’t exist. That road seemed endless and it got deeper and deeper as I went, tripping me more often than not. This beautiful snowy collage that I was part of, a masterpiece, must have looked ever so wonderful to anyone who saw it, that is, if they knew not the story behind it.  The grief hung over me like a grey cloud, occasionally letting out torrents of rain and pushing my sorrow even more. Truthfully, I believed the road would never end. And I thought God was ever so far away.

                                                                                             ~

Four years had passed since the morning when the truth had dawned upon me. Everybody thought I was dead and my parents moved to a different country though no one knew exactly where. I guess I should have been content with what I had. I had been picked up by a rich family after two weeks of grimacing at eating apple cores from trash cans and they gave me food and somewhere to rest my head, not to mention protection and clothes fitting for the season. But I wasn’t. The fact that I knew that my family was still out there somewhere was pounding in my head. But after a few years and many tears the remembrance of my family was almost entirely gone. The people who I lived with told me I was their child and had always lived with them and I slowly began to believe it. There was no one to tell me otherwise, no proof of another family and how was I to know that being a member of the Alrinch family wasn’t merely a dream. That is what I was led to believe and that is what I did believe. So I continued on with my life, sweeping floors, washing dishes, folding laundry, scrubbing walls, organizing rooms, wiping tables and dusting bookshelves. I practically ran the whole house for them. Then I had to make breakfast, dinner, snack, supper and dessert and I did not get my fair chair. I watched them take five separate plates heaping over with fruits, meats, cheeses, cookies, cakes, veggies, breads, soups and jams well I got a smaller plate than the six year old and wasn’t even allowed seconds. Well, so maybe they weren’t the nicest people who could have taken me into their home but they provided me with what I needed and as I had begun to forget my family I began to get happy where I was. However one day as I was walking along the kitchen floor I slipped on a ship that young Jonathan had left on the kitchen floor. It flew out from under my feet and I lay sprawled out on the floor. But the glass which I had held in my hand at the time of the fall had a crack running straight down the middle.  At the noise that this had made Mrs. Elliot came running into the kitchen fearing that one of their cats had snuck inside and was causing this trouble. Yet when her eyes rested upon me and the broken glass (which she had gotten for twenty-five cents at the thrift store and almost never used) she began yelling all sorts of words at me which I knew not their meaning though I was sure they were meant to offend and threw me into my room, locking the door and saying I would not “come out or eat or drink for two days!” Suddenly the door opened and I was sure she was having mercy on me but instead she had come to fetch the glass which I was still holding in my hand.

                                                                                               ~

 I had never really taken the time to look around my room, in spite of the fact that it was so cramped I could hardly help but see and run into everything. Now, however, I was going to have two whole days in what

I always had thought was meant to be a storage closet (judging by the size of this room and the size of all the others) I decided to make a thorough investigation of it and perhaps find some source of entertainment or at least some way to be useful. In one corner of the room was my bed. The mattress was old and worn and I might as well have been sleeping on the floor but the blankets were plentiful and provided me with great warmth so I was happy for that (though the pillow was flat.) There was a bookshelf that was so tall that there was probably a centimeter between it and the ceiling and it must have caused them great trouble to get it in here. It was therefore evident that they had toiled hard to bring it into here and get it in the exact place and position it was now in so you would think that there would be so many books that you could not fit one more on it. Books of fairy tales, adventure stories, volumes of history and poetry, field guides, slim drawing books, mysteries, and ever so much more that would provide an endless amount of time of entertainment and joy. But the only book on the entire bookshelf was a four-hundred page book on housecleaning.  They had removed every book that could actually provide education and entertainment and left me with one book that had nothing good to it. I scowled and searched the rest of the room, finding nothing that would be of any interest whatsoever and soon thumped down onto my bed in despair.  Then like a lightning bolt flashing across the sky and idea struck me. I had to escape. I fit my fingers over the rusted window edge and forced it open with a squeal and a squeak. A gust of air hit me in the face and I almost stumbled backwards in surprise but came to my senses before I fell. Then I ran over to the window and began inspecting things. The screen was held on tightly by an overload of screws, screwed in many odd places that had no patterns to them at all. The material the screen was made out of however was considerably old and therefore quite battered and not very sturdy at all. And I had a plan. I looked in the direction of the bookshelf, my eyes scanning the empty shelves until they met the book. I looked at it with contempt, dashed across the room, yanked it from its shelf and with all my strength hurled it out the window. As I watched it tear through the screen a smile spread across my face so large that it nearly reached up to my tiny nose but it was so large for a good reason. I had just accomplished two magnificent things, getting rid of that hideous thing that is not worthy enough to be called a book and tearing the screen. Speaking of the screen… there was quite a large drop from the window to the ground. I now remembered that I had gone through at least three staircases to get to my room so it made sense that it was such a long drop. But it was more than inconvenient, that’s for sure. It could make this whole endeavor turn into a catastrophe.  It would take ever so much time to put into word all the thoughts and schemes and feelings that were running through my head so I will skim past all of that. “Trust in God” was pounding through my head though I wrinkled my nose at the thought of it saying, “I believe God exists, I just don’t believe he is who we think he is.” And then I felt inclined to jump. And jump is what I did.

                                                                                  ~

The feeling that I was falling to my death pounded through my body, forcing fear upon me more than ever before. Suddenly, even as I was falling to the ground I caught sight of a tree branch and I jumped in the air, pushing my body towards the tree. My hand went up and I felt my fingers catch on a small twig which was shooting of the main branch which I had been aiming for. I heard it begin to crack and I pushed my body forward, kicked up against the tree trunk and as I began spinning through midair after having let go of the branch I dived down and got both my hands securely around the tree branch. My two brothers Nathaniel and Jonathan had been playing with the hose in the earlier hours of the day and as they were such rambunctious little things they could not keep the hose in one place for the slightest amount of time and it soon went crazy and began spraying in every which way. This resulted in, though the weather was dry, the tree branches being wet and slippery, and the green moss that was along the tree branches acting like a sponge. I had to get a very tight grasp on the branch so that I would not lose my hold and then I swung myself up nice and square so that all of me was on the right side of the branch.  I took a few deep breaths, giving myself time to fully take in all that had just happened which amazed me a lot because I had no idea whatsoever that I was so acrobatic. However, I was pleased of the fact as it would surely aid me in my endeavor to escape from these people. These people? Why had I just called my family these people? Did I even know what family meant? I shook myself out of the trance quickly. Of course I knew what family meant. They lived in the house I was escaping from. I suddenly felt guilty but only for a moment. For some reason I knew there was nothing to be guilty of. The rest of the way down the tree was quite a mess of bumps, jolts and falls. I had to catch myself nearly a million times from falling and when I was only about three-quarters of the way down my knuckles were bleeding badly and my the bottom half of my clothes was quite soiled. Then I heard the door open. I really believe that my heart skipped a beat. They were going to see me. Just as I saw the chubby face of Nathaniel turn towards me I let go of the tree.

                                                                                        ~

My body landed with a crash in the middle of the bushes, almost silently and I felt myself get covered by the shrubs that were surrounding the tree which I had recently jumped from. I was surprised that I wasn’t in a million pieces right now as that had been a very long fall. However, I had hardly even felt anything when I crashed against the ground. It seemed like forever until my family left but finally they had left, though it was already almost dark. I sighed and picked myself up slowly as if I was waiting to realize five of my bones were broken though none of them were. Then I started walking down the dirt road. The sun was quickly setting and I hastened my footsteps a little though not much. I looked down at the ground as I walked and suddenly the real things that I was seeing disappeared and other sights began taking their place. In front of my eyes I saw a girl who looked like the younger version of me and she was walking down a road too, her eyes pointed to the ground. But the road was covered with snow in this picture, unlike my case now. For a moment I started to remember something but then it all disappeared and I was back on my own road. Everything was gone. Whatever that memory was had hidden itself from me. Then again I felt drawn to a place. It was a field behind a barbed wire fence. Recalling how acrobatic I had been earlier I ran up to it and jumped, my arms and legs flailing high in the air until I felt myself land amongst some yellow weeds, with their heads hanging down to the ground as if they were mourning for something. I realized that it was very dark and I cautiously lifted my head up to the stars. And floods of memories began pouring in, my family, fire, snow, being taken in, told it was a dream, escaping. But the most prominent memory; no, this wasn’t just a memory; was God. I felt myself overcome at first but then extremely joyful. I stood under the stars, staring up at them. As I stood there God told me something. You are going to find your family. And as I stood there under the stars, I knew that I was because God always tells the truth. 

Please comment and tell me if you like it. It closes soon so if you are going to enter, go! 

Also we are entering into Storytellers photo and edit contest! Here is I, Layla's entry:

 I think that's about all. Sorry for not posting forever:( But we have a few exciting posts planned so stay tuned!

Layla. 

Entering story challenge!

We are entering this story challenge. First I, Laylas entry:

  Emily

Couldn’t there just be one day when luck was on my side. Or was I just destined to be unlucky? Why did I even ask myself when I knew the answers? That was what I was thinking as I opened the door to a wave of heat to test my brother’s metal detector.

“Why can’t you just do it?”

“I have to place a wire in the middle section of my newest invention to enact the…” Yep. Always had something else to do. So with a sigh I walked out of the house into the flames of heat. I walked up the winding path, with grass which was yellow from the heat trodden down till it could hardly be seen. I really hoped there would be something wrong with the cursed metal detector so I wouldn’t have to dig up the target of that monotonous beeping that nearly drove me insane every time I heard it. The dirt was baked by the sun till it was hard as rock and would withstand more than most rocks around the place. And there was no chance of it being turned into mud; the sun helped make any water dissolve before it could do any harm or good. But I had guessed it. Luck was not on my side. Just as I turned the wretched thing on and began sweeping it over the rock-hard ground I heard a deep beeping sound come forth from the fateful thing. I turned the thing off as quickly as I could and flew down the pathway, into the shed and came back with a rusted and splintering shovel. Anything to speed it up and get back my precious free time. So I drove the shovel head into the ground and jumped on it with all my force, pushing it deep into the dirt. I tossed the pile away and began digging faster and faster. I didn’t even realize that by digging this I had made myself angry, each blow of the spade making my temper rise. Then it was as if all I knew was hunger and heat and one thing that I knew not that I had: determination. If not for determination I would not have started digging the hole, if not for determination I would never have continued. And now it was driving me like never before. I had begun to think that I was just going to die out there in the heat, no proper goodbyes, no one nearby, just death and then- I wasn’t sure what would happen to me after death. Then I felt the spade head hit something. It hit with such force that it jolted me backwards onto the dirt; the shovel fell upon me and banged against my head, the metal leaving a long red mark. I hastily picked myself up and brushed the dirt off myself and then took those three fateful steps to the hole. The hole was nearly six feet deep and at the very bottom was a chest of some sort, with rusty iron locking it shut.

I lay on my stomach and reached my lanky arms into the uneven hole until I could just barely touch the top of the chest. I wrapped my fingers around the crumbling iron and began pulling it up out of the hole. I felt as if it was pulling my limbs apart, my grimy fingers began slipping and the chest didn’t even budge. I wiped the sweat off my face, leaving a line of dirt and mud behind; I gripped the metal once again and with all of my strength and even more, pulled. My arms were almost wrenched out of their sockets as I gave that one last pull bringing the chest on its side out of the hole. I fell over in pain, surprised at how much force I had put into that. That was the day I learned one good thing about myself: when I put myself to something I would get it done no matter what. I looked down at my hands as now that I had freed the chest I could feel the pain that was in them. The metal must have cut into them as there was dark red blood all over my hands that looked black because it was mixed with mud and they stung so badly I nearly screamed out because of the pain. These feelings had nearly erased the chest from my mind so after I calmed myself it popped right back in without me even asking. I slowly made my way over to the chest, my heart pounding. At first I thought I would give it to Daniel because- well, it would be the right thing to do.  But perhaps you have seen that doing the right thing was not one of my few virtues. I kept it for myself. God surely must have been teaching me a lesson right then, even though I would not be able to use it ever again. So there I sat for hours well all the while the hot sun beat down upon me turning my face beet red trying to break that lock. It was such an evil thing, trying to keep me from the goodies inside that chest which my mind was telling me was gold and a lot of it for that matter. Yes, despite the fact that I was a stubborn fourteen year old I still believed in fairytales. And then I heard something pop. It all happened so quickly that I wasn’t quite sure if it was anything. But deep inside of me I knew the lock was broken. I eagerly threw the wretched lock away and tossed open the heavy lid. I looked inside. There, right at the bottom of the chest was a book. Only a book. Tears sprung up into my eyes and a few fell in trickles down my dirty face, making pathways through the dirt. I kicked the chest with all my strength and it didn’t even wobble. It was the chest that was heavy, not what was inside. So many thoughts- all which had traces of hatred running through them- were going through my mind that I cannot close to explain half of them yet the main thought that was driving them all was more than clear.  In fact it was pounding in my mind, the words straight before me. I tried closing my eyes to keep out the sight yet I could not. The words were only in my mind. “We live in the real world Emily, face the facts. Stop living in your dreams.” But I knew I couldn’t.

Then as lightning flashes through the sky in just one second my tantrum was over in just one second. Gone. As if it had never existed. And my mind wandered back to the chest. I picked up the slim book that was in the bottom of the chest and looked at it. No title, no author. I sighed and began flipping through the pages with no hope that the book was worth anything. I was too depressed to have hope in anything. That is, except for God. Though he seemed pretty far away now. That was when something caught my eye. Just one sentence. “If you are reading this now, your life is nearly at an end as this is the mystery to your life.” Was I going to continue believing in fairytales? I had to break the habit sometime or other. But alas, my attention was caught. I read it from beginning to end, well the first chapter anyways. “Each person’s life is a mystery waiting to be solved. When they solve it they die. Each person has a different mystery to solve, some come in unexpected yet fairly simple ways well others have to toil till tears are brought to their eyes to find the mystery. But the person has to have a slight bit of determination and selflessness in them to find their mystery. Those who do not care do not find theirs.  If you are reading this now, your life is nearly at an end as this is the mystery to your life.” A wave of shock and yet relief blew over me. I felt that God was near and I was happy. As I write this I feel myself fading away. Is there anything more?

When I woke up I thought I saw a fairy beside me. Perhaps fairy tales really are true. Then I looked up and saw the most beautiful and amazing sight ever. This couldn’t be a fairytale. It was too good for that. I knew that people must know which is why I am writing this and trusting in God to carry it to its destination.

………………………………

The journal was found half burnt the very day that this occurred. Someone had set a tree nearby on fire and Emily and the metal detector were burnt with it. There was no chest or book anywhere near and soon after the journal was read we determined that Emily was crazy. However some people still believe that the chest and book were just burnt up in the fire though those people do not believe what the book said was actually true. “Maybe now” said a young girl who was in the latter group of people, “Emily knows that the book was lying.” “But if the book was true” some find themselves asking “what happens to the people who don’t solve their mystery.”  But they had no answer for it is not their mystery to solve.

  Hope you enjoyed it.  Now for I Josiahs entry:

  

PHILLIPS UNDERWATER ADVENTURE

Phillip was a fisherman who was very poor, he had a small house; however, he was very smart. One day he was out fishing with some buddies when he fell overboard. He was in the ocean so of course he couldn’t breathe, but when he was floating down he saw what looked like a fence made out of rocks. When he landed on the bottom of the ocean he landed inside the circle of rocks, and when he got inside he could breathe! Lucky him, for he would have drowned soon if that hadn’t happened. He stood up and then noticed that in the middle of the circle there was a huge boulder, and then he saw that in the boulder there was a door that appeared to be just the right size for a starfish! “Strange” he said to himself, and then he opened the door, and when he opened it to his surprise it became just the right size for him! He stepped inside and was in a long hallway. He walked on for a little while when he noticed a door at the end of the long hallway.

    He opened the door and slowly, stepped inside. When he was inside he saw a throne and there was a starfish sitting in it that was wearing a crown, and surrounding the throne were a dozen soldier starfish!

   “Get him “ordered the starfish in the throne who seemed to be a king. Then four of the starfish soldiers ran forward, tied his hands and feet and strapped him to a large bed that was sitting in a corner of the room. The starfish king walked over and in a solemn voice said, “You have invaded the property of Akadan, King of the starfish,” and he drew his sword from the belt that he was wearing and raised it over his head. He was about to strike Phillip when all of a sudden a shark burst into the room! It swam straight into Akadan, knocking him over. Then a giant sea snail came into the room and said quietly to Phillip, “You need to get out of here quick!”

  “But I can’t” whispered Phillip,” I’m tied up as you can plainly see.” At this the snail went over to Akadan’s sword (which Akadan had dropped in fright when the shark burst into the room) and picked it up. The snail returned to Philip hastily and cut the ropes. Then they both ran out of the mystical, huge boulder.

    Then Phillip asked, “But how I am supposed to get up out of the ocean?”

    The snail replied “My friend Bobbie the parrot fish can help you with that.” And then a big parrot fish swam over and placed Phillip on his back. Then Bobbie swam up to the top of the ocean and threw Phillip onto the boat which he had earlier fallen off of. One of his friends came up to him and said “Wow, you came back alive, how did you manage to do that.”

 Then Phillip said, “Well, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

                 
Hope you enjoyed that one too. You guys should go enter. We will end with a picture.

 
Yeah, I know random. But we are random so deal with it. Bye!